WASHINGTON \u2014 The top representatives to the U.S. from Denmark and Greenland met with White House officials Thursday, according to a source familiar with the discussions, to seek a better understanding of U.S. policy on the semiautonomous island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A White House official confirmed the meeting with the Danish ambassador to the U.S., Jesper M\u00f8ller S\u00f8rensen, and Greenland\u2019s representative to the U.S., Jacob Isbosethsen, but both sources declined to say who from the Trump administration participated in the discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Donald Trump has said he needs the Arctic island for national security purposes, with White House officials publicly discussing a range of options to acquire the Danish territory, from using the U.S. military to purchasing the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked about Greenland in a recent New York Times interview, Trump said that \u201cownership is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ownership is \u201cwhat I feel is psychologically needed for success,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI think that ownership gives you a thing that you can\u2019t do with, you\u2019re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can\u2019t get from just signing a document.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with the foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland next week for further discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice President JD Vance, who took questions from reporters at Thursday’s White House briefing, reiterated the U.S. interest in Greenland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to deliver some of these messages in private, some of them in public, but I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNumber one, Greenland is really important, not just to America\u2019s missile defense, but to the world\u2019s missile defense. Number two, we know that there are hostile adversaries that have shown a lot of interest in that particular territory, that particular slice of the world,” he said. “So what we\u2019re asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they\u2019re not, the United States is going to have to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S\u00f8rensen and Isbosethsen also met Thursday with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a social media post after the meeting with lawmakers, S\u00f8rensen said Denmark, a member of NATO, has recently invested $4 billion in Arctic security, including expanding the permanent presence of its armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He called Denmark and Greenland \u201cstrong, reliable partners\u201d for U.S. security interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for purchasing the island, Isbosethsen was blunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGreenland is not for sale,\u201d he told NBC News following meetings on Capitol Hill. \u201cI think our prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and our foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, has made it very, very clear our country belongs to the Greenlandic people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a Trump ally, said Thursday that there’s no avenue to acquire Greenland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s been made clear from our Danish friends and from our friends in Greenland that that future does not include a negotiation,” he said. “There\u2019s no willingness on their part to negotiate for the purchase or the change in title to their land, which they\u2019ve had for so long. That\u2019s their prerogative, and they\u2019re right, and they\u2019ve made that very clear to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n